Zootopia Wikia:Manual of Style
The Manual of Style is a guide regarding proper writing technique for all Wiki articles and documents. It is a set of standards designed to aid editors in the production of articles with clear, consistent, and precise language and formatting. It is imperative to maintain consistency in style to promote an experience that has both clarity and cohesion. Perspective There are two types of perspectives: in-universe and out-of-universe. In-universe refers to things existing in the world of Zootopia, while out-of-universe describes things that exist in the real world. For example, Judy Hopps exists in-universe, but Ginnifer Goodwin exists out-of-universe. Note that all articles should be written as objectively as possible. In-universe The things featured in in-universe articles should not be treated as fictional constructs but rather as if they existed in the real world. An in-universe article should never contain out-of-universe content (e.g. "Judy Hopps is the protagonist of Zootopia"), unless it is placed within the "Trivia" section. In-universe articles must employ the past tense to describe past events or people who are deceased. Present tense must be used if the the previous guideline is not met. Out-of-universe Out-of-universe articles are written from a real life point of view, and the past, present, and future tenses are used wherever appropriate. Spelling American spelling should be used on all articles to reflect the American origin of Zootopia. This does not extend to comments, user profiles, blogs, or forum posts. Dates Similarly, dates used on the Wiki should follow the American format, MM/DD/YYYY. However, to remove ambiguity, the month should be written out (e.g. November 27, 2013 NOT 11/27/2013). Grammar Dashes Please refrain from using dashes (-) in articles, as this is not proper grammar. If an en dash is used (–), a space must be used between the dash and the words around it. There is another type of dash, an em dash (—), which is placed directly between words. It is preferred that an en dash is used on the wiki. Parenthesis Parenthesis, otherwise known as curved brackets, should not be used in article to insert information. If this occurs, the sentence should instead be rewritten to include the information without parenthesis. For example: :Judy and Nick (her friend) have a close relationship. Could be rewritten to be: :Judy and her friend, Nick, have a close relationship OR :Judy has a close relationship with her friend, Nick. Contractions All contractions should be written out. This is an encyclopedia, and thus should reflect encyclopedic style. :Nick wasn't happy that Judy blamed the predators' DNA for their turn to savagery. :Nick was not happy that Judy blamed the predators' DNA for their turn to savagery. In this instance, the first should be rewritten to reflect the second. Article titles An article's title is a label for the article, so as to distinguish it from other articles. Some important things to keep in mind when formatting titles: * Unless the article title contains a proper noun, only the first letter should be capitalized (e.g. Judy's carrot pen, NOT Judy's Carrot Pen). * Refrain from using a character's rank in the title (e.g. Judy Hopps, NOT Officer Hopps). * If there are articles with similar titles, it is necessary to add disambiguation tags. Article layouts The layout of articles within a similar category should be consistent. Every article should have a brief summary at the top and the appropriate infobox if it exists. Characters The following headings should be used for character articles where applicable: # History # Personality # Abilities # Relationships (Should provide a link that leads to a separate page detailing all of a character's relationships) # Appearances # Trivia (Organize in list format) # Gallery # References Relationships The following headings should be used for character relationship articles where applicable: #Relatives #Love interests #Allies #Neutral #Enemies #References Locations The following headings should be used for articles pertaining to locations where applicable: # History # Description # Trivia # References Bolds, Italics, and Quotes Bold Bold text should only be used once when the article's name is mentioned in the introductory paragraphs. Italics Italics should be used to designate a film or television show's name (Zootopia, Once Upon a Time). Italics should also be used for emphasis, as opposed to capitals. Quotes Quotation marks should be used around the names of episode titles and songs. They are also used when quoting a source in exact words. When using quotation marks to quote a source, double quotations are used; single quotation marks should only be used for quotes within a quote. Punctuation marks should be placed within quotation marks when they are part of the quote and placed outside when they are not. Files Images Usage and quality Images should not be used excessively on articles and should only be used as supplements to the text. As such, all images uploaded to the Wiki must be used on an article; any other images are subject to deletion. Uploaded images should be of the highest quality available and images with poor quality are subject to replacement by a higher quality version. File extensions The most common file extensions are .JPG and .PNG, but the latter is preferable due to its lossless data compression. Animated .GIF files are not allowed due to their distracting nature. Further guidelines # The shortest side of an image should be resized to 250px prior to upload. # All images in an article should have a description, either explaining what is in the image, or how the image is relevant to the point it is backing up. # In general, thumbnails in an article should be 200px. # A screenshot may be cropped to allow for concentration on a particular subject, when the other elements of the image are at risk of deviating from that subject. # Galleries should only contain images on the subject matter, i.e. no images of Nick on Judy's gallery. # No fan art of any kind should be uploaded. You do reserve the right to post such images onto your own user page via a Photobucket or Imageshack link. Videos Due to the Wiki's focus on text, videos should not be used on articles except in circumstances in which the content is exceedingly difficult to transcribe. References As an encyclopedia, all information present must be verifiable by a reliable source. As such, speculative remarks may not be added to any article. If there is a likelihood that a presented point may be disputed, a citation must be added. References should appear at the end of every article. Category:Policy